Insert Witty Title Here
by LunerSoal996
Summary: Steve likes Tony, Bucky is supportive, Clint tries his best, and everyone else is along for the ride. It's a fairly short ride, but a ride nonetheless.


Tony drummed his fingers on the table, clicking his pen absently. The words on the paper blurred and had longHe sighed, pushing away from the desk and rolling over to the elevator. He stood, walking into it "Penthouse, J"

The elevator ascended, Tony slumped against the wall, sighing. Ding. The elevator doors opened, he stepped through.

Steve looked up from his sketch pad "Hey Tony... Y'alright?"

Tony smiled, walking up to the couch and plopping down "M'fine Sunshine. Just a bit tired" he murmured, head lolling onto Steve's shoulder.

Steve sat up a bit straighter, slinging an arm around Tony's shoulders "You should get some sleep, Tones"

Tony hummed, eyelids fluttering "Yeah..." he trailed off.

888

Steve sighed fondly as Tony snored gently "Oh, Tony" he murmured exasperatedly

He waited awhile before lifting Tony up bridal-style and carrying him off to his bedroom.

Carefully, he lowered Tony onto the bed, shaking his head. Tony had been in the lab sixty-seven hours, and Steve had been beginning to wonder if he was ever to re-surface.

Steve smiled fondly at the sleeping engineer, sighing "You sure are something, Tony" he murmured, smoothing the genius' hair back.

He hung his head, pulling his hand back. He sighed, walking to the door. He looked back, hand on the doorframe. smiling sadly, he switched the light off and closed the door silently behind him.

He gathered up his things, taking the elevator back to his apartment.

He walked into the room, placing his belongings onto the coffee table. He slumped down onto the couch, head in his hands.

"You really ought to just tell him, Steve"

He jumped, looking up and seeing Bucky sitting solemnly in his armchair, gazing at him concernedly. Had he just been sitting here in the dark waiting for him? He was a strange one, that Bucky.

Steve cleared his throat "I don't know what you're talking about" he said dismissively.

Bucky narrowed his eyes "Bullshit" he grunted "You know damn well what I'm talking about, Steve"

Steve glared half-heartedly at him "What do you want, Buck?" He asked coolly.

"What do I want?" Bucky growled. He stood and stalked over to Steve "I want you to stop being an idiot and tell him"

Steve shrugged, looking away "Tell who what?" He asked casually, leaning back.

Bucky sighed. He crouched down, glaring at Steve with his icy blue eyes "Tell Tony that you're in love with him" he said simply.

Steve sputtered "I am not in love with Tony!" He hissed "We're friends and that's it!"

Bucky took a deep breath, holding up a hand "Steve" he began, sitting next to him "Denial won't stop me knowing. In fact, it won't stop anyone knowing"

Steve blinked "What d'you mean?" He asked, looking anywhere but Bucky.

The ex-Assassin laughed "Stevie, the only person who doesn't know how you feel about Tony, is Tony" he told him, clapping him on the shoulder "You don't need to hide, Steve. It's a new century, people have evolved"

Steve sighed exhaustedly "I know that, Buck... it's just..." he shrugged weakly "What if he doesn't... feel the same way?" He croaked, looking to his friend.

Bucky smiled sadly "No one's ever gotten anywhere by being afraid of what could happen" he murmured "We're all rooting for you, Steve... all you gotta do is tell him"

Steve pressed his lips together, looking at the floor "Easier said than done, Buck..."

Bucky shrugged, standing "It always is, Stevie"

888

The next few weeks were torture, trying to work up the courage to confess his feelings to Tony.

The time was never right, ether someone else was in the room, or Tony was busy, or Steve just froze up and retreated. He was beginning to think he should just bottle his feelings up for the rest of his life and be happy with Tony as a friend.

Bucky kept giving him pep talks whenever they were alone together, words of encouragement when training, thumbs-ups in the halls... Steve had to admit, it was helping, but not much.

Soon, Bucky had gotten Clint and Nat on the bandwagon of him and Tony getting together, and the two of them encouraged him in some... unique ways.

Clint would give him a cookie every time Steve managed to so much as interact with Tony, which seemed to confuse the billionaire, as Clint would keep coming up to them when they were in the middle of a conversation and force a pastry into Steve's hand. This was slightly embarrassing but ultimately worth it, the cookies were delicious.

Nat, on the other hand, would sabotage his equipment so he would have to go to Tony for repairs, which only caused Tony to go off on multiple rants about the unlikelihood of Clint targeting Steve so much.

It wasn't much longer before Thor and Bruce joined the club. This was terrifying because now they were working as a team.

During movie nights, they would arrange themselves so that Steve and Tony had no choice but to sit next to each other. This was actually quite annoying, because Steve would be distracted the whole movie by Tony's presence.

So, yeah, things weren't the greatest in the world of Steve Rogers.

888

Steve walked down the stairs, working his jaw. Clint had just thrown a cookie at him from across the room after he and Tony had gone to get refreshments for the movie. He'd told them he had a headache, and that he wanted to go lie down, then left out the door for the stairs, not having wanted to deal with the elevator.

He stopped at the landing for his floor, scanning his ID card and opening the door.

He walked to his apartment door, resting his head against the wood with a sigh.

"Why does this have to be so hard?" He murmured.

"Why does what have to be so hard?"

He jumped a little, head snapping over to the man leaning against the staircase door.

Tony frowned, looking concerned "I came to see if you needed anything, you left kinda quick back there" he inclined his head behind him.

Steve swallowed "N-no, I'm fine, Tony" he said hastily, "Just a headache, I'll be fine after I've slept"

Tony walked a few paces closer to him "You sure you're okay, Cap? You've been a bit... jumpy, these last few weeks"

Now was the perfect opportunity. C'mon, Rogers, just say 'Actually Tony, I wanted to talk to you about something' Easy, right?

Steve smiled falsely "Yeah, no, I'm good" he said, heart sinking a little "Its just, uh, nerves s'all," he said with a shrug.

Tony's brow furrowed, walking the last few strides up to him. Steve could smell his aftershave "Steve, you've all been really weird these last couple of months. Clint keeps giving you cookies and breaking your equipment, Thor's been stocking the pantry with Asgardian mead, Bruce has been locking me out of the lab because I don't 'Talk to the team enough'" he trailed off after the air-quotes, shrugging "Is something going on?"

Steve closed his eyes, hanging his head "They're just trying to be helpful" he muttered, opening his eyes and staring at his shoes "In their own way..."

"Helpful? What are they helping with?" Tony asked, sounding very confused.

Steve bit his lip, leaning his shoulder against his door "They're, uh, t-trying to get me to ask someone out..."

'Smooth, Steve, ten outta ten, I'll be here all week' he thought absently.

"Oh?" Tony asked hesitantly "Why are they, uh, helping you with that?" He questioned.

Steve shrugged, building up the courage to look Tony in the eye. He did so, clearing his throat "I really like this person, a-and I'm afraid they don't feel the same way. The others have been egging me on for months" he finished with a lame shrug.

The brunette nodded slowly "Right..." his voice sounded oddly thick "Do I, uh, know this person?"

Steve looked back to his feet "I'd assume so..." he muttered, stomach twisting in knots.

"Why's that?" Tony asked curiously, sounding almost choked-up.

Steve mumbled something under his breath, shrugging.

"What's that? My hearing isn't that good" the billionaire said with a faint chuckle.

"S'cause it's you..." Steve mumbled. He hunched his shoulders a bit, really wishing he'd just stayed upstairs.

"M-me?" Tony asked weakly.

Steve nodded a bit, shifting on his feet "Yeah" he said faintly, scuffing his shoe on the floor.

He took a deep breath, straightening up and looking Tony in the eye "If you want we can just pretend this never happe-" he began, though he was cut off by Tony holding up a hand.

"No, no. I very much do not want to just forget about this" he said, pocketing his hand.

Steve sighed, rubbing his face "Look, I get it, Tony. You're not interested. But I really don-"

"Who told you that?" Tony cut him off, eyes flashing slightly.

"What?" Steve asked, frowning.

"That I'm not interested"

Steve blinked, furrowing his brow "No one told me" he said.

Tony nodded "Exactly"

He shifted on his feet again "I-I don't see where you're going with this" he said quietly, hardly daring to hope.

Tony stepped a bit closer to him, almost brushing against him "Well Steve, you know what they say about assuming things..." he said quietly "But there's really no need to assume, because I assure you," he leaned up to whisper in Steve's ear "I am very interested"

Steve swallowed, heart skipping a beat "Yeah?" He croaked.

"Oh yeah" Tony murmured, wrapping an arm around Steve's shoulders and pulling back a bit to face him. He leaned up, Steve met him half-way.

The kiss was chaste, slow. Steve let Tony lead, as he really wasn't sure what he was doing, he put his hand on Tony's waist.

Tony pulled back, smiling slightly "Glad I came down here" he murmured "Speaking of which, do you actually have a headache?"

Steve smirked "No. I was just tired of Clint turning pastries into projectiles"

Tony snorted "D'you want to go back upstairs?"

"Not particularly... do you?" He asked, leaning down to kiss him.

Tony hummed against his lips "Let me think..." he murmured "Uhhh nope"

Steve chuckled, rolling his eyes.


End file.
